FOR THE RECORD

FOR THE RECORD; In These Olympics, A Victory for Everyone

By MAREK FUCHS

Published: July 11, 2004

THIS summer Sue Leitner will be a special kind of Olympian: one who picked her sport because it was the easiest; one who had not yet begun to practice a month before the competition; one cares little about whether she wins or loses.

Rather than competing in the Games in Greece, Mrs. Leitner, who received a kidney transplant in October, is to take part in the National Kidney Foundation 2004 United States Transplant Games, which run from July 28 to Aug. 1 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

To qualify for the Transplant Games, which have taken place every other year since 1990, an athlete must be the recipient of at least one life-saving organ transplant. This year, 2,000 athletes are expected to compete in bowling, swimming, bicycling, track and field, and basketball events. The games are supplemented with seminars and an event honoring organ donors.

Mrs. Leitner, 44, of Edgemont, whose mother supplied the kidney for her transplant, once bowled in leagues so her choice of sport for the Games was easy. But her expectations are more measured today.

''I used to bowl a 170,'' she said, ''but at this point, to reach a 100 without bumper guards I'd be lucky.''

Her ordeal began at a checkup after the birth of her son, Matthew, 12 years ago. Doctors found elevated levels of creatinine, which is formed when food is converted to energy, and which the kidneys usually remove from the system. A biopsy revealed an immune-system disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis -- the illness that would later befall the basketball player Alonzo Mourning.

At the time of Mrs. Leitner's diagnosis, however, she felt in perfect health, having come off an apparently uncomplicated pregnancy. She thought the doctors were either fooling or mistaken.

''I just wiped it out of my mind, put a smile on my face and forgot there was something wrong,'' she said. But she couldn't forget for long; her body kept reminding her. She was fatigued, retaining water and suffering from severe joint pain. She went through a period of constant nausea. Her doctors told her she would need a kidney transplant in short order.

Both her mother, Joyce Lenard, who lives in Syosset, and her sister, Jill Horne of Montgomery, N.Y., were acceptable donors, but the match with her mother was better.

''It was bizarre,'' said Mrs. Leitner, because siblings are often closer matches than parents. ''I was waiting to hear some story about how my mother was actually my sister and my grandmother was my mother.''

No such story came, but for Mrs. Lenard, donating a kidney to her daughter seemed akin to giving birth to her for the second time.

''She had just not been feeling well for a long time, too long,'' said Mrs. Lenard, a retired teacher who now works as a staff assistant in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's office in Melville on Long Island.

Mrs. Lenard's voice cracked as she described hobbling into her daughter's hospital room after the surgery and seeing the color returned to her face and hearing the new life in her voice. Although the mother recovered quickly, the daughter found the road back a little bumpier.

''Right afterward,'' Mrs. Leitner recalled, ''I said, 'Why am I going through this? It's hell.' All the medications had side effects, and I'd be dealing with mouth sores, hair issues, nail issues, all sort of issues.''

It was during this crisis period that Ms. Horne took vacation time to help her sister and mother back to health. With all the tumult that the three of them were going through, Mrs. Lenard said, she remembers waiting impatiently for the moment when calm would return and they could go away together.

After three months, when Mrs. Leitner, an accountant, began to feel better, she sought the companionship of other transplant patients and eventually found out about the Transplant Games. Since then, her training has been hindered by complications in the form of nerve irritation and cysts in her bowling arm and hand.

Still, when Mrs. Leitner leaves for the games, all that will be behind her, and her mother and sister will be along for the show. It will be the idyll they have been hoping for since the surgery ended.

Looking past these Games, Mrs. Leitner has ambitious plans, none of which include winning medals.

''I'm hoping to go from bowling this time to either swimming or running next, something bigger and better in the future.''

Photo: Getting ready, Sue Leitner works out at Scarsdale Equinox fitness club. (Photo by Chris Maynard for The New York Times)